MONTGOMERY — According to Alabama State Auditor Andrew Sorrell, a bill to give the Office of Alabama State Auditor new investigative power will be filed in the next couple of weeks.
Sorrell said during a speech outside the State House at a Common Sense Campaign TEA Party rally on Thursday that he wants the Legislature "to give my office the authority to investigate state government and see where we can save money."
"Other state auditors around the country do so much more," Sorrell said. "The Mississippi state auditor has 150 employees in his office. I have nine, including myself. We're a little bit limited on what we can do."
Sorrell said legislation would be filed to request the additional authority from the Legislature "very soon."
"We do audits in the sense that we check (whether) the Verizon bill got paid, the contract was followed, check, check, check," Sorrell said. "But who is checking to see could we get it cheaper from T-Mobile than Verizon? Who's doing that in state government? I think if I was given that authority, I think we could find far more money than it costs to fund our office every year, which by the way, is just $1 million a year is all we run on. I think we could save the state of Alabama far more money than that."
State Auditor is an elected statewide constitutional office. The Office of Auditor tracks state government property. Sorrell, a former state representative, was elected as Alabama State Auditor in 2022.
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